1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an arm holding device, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to an arm holding device for use during medical procedures.
2. Description of Related Art
Arm holding or restraining devices are used in the medical field to prevent patients or wearers from interfering with medical procedures or to keep patients or wearers from aggravating an injury. Holding of a patient's arms is important to prevent the patient from interfering with the doctor when the patient is under anesthesia or flinches nervously. Holding of patient's arms is also important to prevent the patient from picking at their wounds after surgery or otherwise aggravating their injury, such as for the repair of a cleft palate in the case of a child patient. The use of an arm restraining device in the case of children and mentally impaired patients is particularly important because these persons do not understand the nature of their injuries and the need to not cause further injury by touching the wound. Such patients have a propensity to pick at stitches, pull out IV tubes or otherwise hamper the medical procedure. For ease of reference, it is to be understood that when the term “medical procedure” is used herein, it is also to encompass the recovery period after active medical intervention has ceased.
Although arm holding devices have been available in the art, they all have one or more drawbacks, such as they are difficult to fit on, and remove from, the patient. For example, the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,560 is inconvenient to place on or take off from a human and is intended to be used with “violent prisoners” and “mental patients” and is not suitable for use on a patient such as an infant or a child undergoing a medical procedure. Further, the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,844 is intended to be used to safely tether a human to a high chair, wheel chair, or to a leash such that the human is protected from dangerous entanglement with the tether structures but the '844 reference teaches away from restraining the arms of the human. The devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,481,942 and 6,000,402 merely prevent a joint of a limb, for example the knee of a leg or elbow of an arm, from bending. Some of previously available devices are also ineffective because a struggling child or mentally impaired wearer may sometimes be capable of contorting themselves into a position in which they can still access an injury or surgical repair with their hands, thereby rendering the device ineffective. Some wearers may even be able to escape from some of the previously available devices and cause injury to themselves or others. Moreover, some of the devices which have been previously available are also uncomfortable to wear, particularly for children. Still further, a number of the devices which have been previously available are difficult to clean because they are fabricated from materials which are difficult to clean, such as cloth, or because they include rigid components or metal fasteners, for example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,636,101, 2,425,489, 3,324,851, 4,172,453, 5,012,812, and 5,016,650.
It will thus be appreciated that it would be an advantage over the previously available art to provide a medical arm holding device that is easy to place on and take off of the patient and which allows for limited movement of the patient's arms and which is comfortable to wear and easily cleaned and which remains in the proper place on the patient's body.